Story+1985-03-21+Sydney,+Australia

´´Hey!...nice to be in Sydney...sorry we were a little late....(music starts) ready for a little roadtrip? (crowd cheers)....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Darlington County´´**

´´This is about falling through the bottom....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Johnny 99´´**

´´Thanks....where I´m from, there´s this....uh, old beach town where they legalised gambling ....and, uh, there´s big golden casinos next to the slums....and mafias fight for, for control, here´s ´Atlantic City´....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Atlantic City´´**

´´This is a song about, uh, about blind faith....(plays harmonica)(the band joins in)....blind faith, it can be just to anything....whether it´s a flag or your government, it comes back to get you in the end....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Reason To Believe´´**

´´I was driving across the United States in, I guess it was the late-´70s....about ´77 and uh.... we were driving through Phoenix, Arizona, and I stopped at this drugstore to get a book to read....and I went in and I found this book called Born On The Fourth Of July by a fella named Ron Kovic....Ron Kovic was a Vietnam veteran and the book was his story about coming home and what he found when he got back home....and, uh, I remember we drove on to Los Angeles and I was staying in this motel and I was in the pool and there was this fella in the wheelchair sitting, sitting by the side of the pool....and, uh....I got out and I was sitting and I had the book with me and he said ´I wrote that book´....and uh....I know what a tragedy for my country that that war was....and so this is for any, if there´s any Vietnam veterans out there tonight....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Shut Out The Light´´**

´´Thanks....about, uh, I think it was in 1976, me and the band, we were out in the States on the ´Born To Run´-tour....I was but a young lad at the time (chuckles) and I remember it was the first time we´d ever been down to Memphis and we played in this little auditorium down there and we went back to the hotel after the show and me and my guitar player Steve, we were sitting around....and, uh, we decided we wanted to go get something to eat and so we called up a taxi cab and a taxi came and we said ´Take us someplace outside of town where nobody´s gonna bother us or nothing,´ he said ´Well, there´s this place out by Elvis´ house´ and we say....´You know where Elvis lives?´ the guy says ´Yeah, yeah, I do´ ´Take us,´ we said ´Take us to Elvis´ right now´ and it was about 3.30 in the morning and he drives us out there and we pull out in front and there´s those big gates with the guitar, with the guitar player on the front and I get out and I look and I see a light, you can look way in the drive and you can see the big house, and in this, on the second story I could see there was a light on so I figured that Elvis must be up reading or something, you know....so I said ´Steve, Steve, I gotta go, man, I gotta see if he´s home´....the cab driver said ´No, don´t climb over there, man, they got big dogs and they´re gonna eat you up and´ but I climb up over the wall and I start running up the driveway and I get all the way to the frontdoor and I´m just about to knock and these guards come out of the woods and they say ´What do you want?´ I said ´Well, is Elvis home?´....they said ´No, no, he´s not home, he´s in Lake Tahoe right now´ I said ´Oh,´ I said ´Well, see, like, I´m a guitar player too´ and like I told ´em my name, I said I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek and stuff (chuckles) and they said ´Oh, yeah, sure you were, sure you were, oh, you were, yeah, sure´ and then they took me back down and put me back out on the street....they were nice about it though (chuckles) but uh, I don´t know, I don´t know what I would have said to him if I´d have met him....but now sometimes I think it was a stupid thing to do, I always hate it when people come knocking on my door (chuckles) well, what goes around comes around....but, uh, I don´t know, it seemed like I couldn´t understand it, I remember when a friend of mine called me up and told me that he´d died, it seemed hard to believe that somebody who had taken away so many people´s loneliness could´ve ended up so lonely in the end....it doesn´t seem right, it doesn´t seem fair....anyway, this is, uh, this is called ´Bye Bye Johnny´....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Johnny Bye Bye´´**

´´(after the singalong) That´s as good as they do it in New Jersey....this is a song about.... growing old....nobody likes to think about that....I think about it all the time....and me, I´m almost, uh, 30, 30, 30, 30, uh, Clarence is 43....(chuckles)....you see, now, this is a song about old times, everybody gets their share the older you get....now Clarence´s definitely got more than me....but as you can see, he has maintained his youthful beauty....now the worst thing about getting older is, you know, you go out to a bar on Friday night and there´s always somebody that like went to school with you....and they come up and they pat you on the back and say ´How you doing and what´s new? Remember me? No, no, remember me, remember the guy that threw the pizza on your head in the lunchroom?....Yeah, that´s me! How you doing?´ ´Yeah, great to see you again´ ´Man, that was great, that high school, that was so much fun´....but like everytime I start thinking back to high school I realise.....that I hated high school....I couldn´t stand no high school....I´ve been out of high school for 15 years, I´m still glad I don´t have to do no homework or go back in the fall....in high school I was only interested in two things....now, one was the guitar....and the other one was....was.... was....yeah, that one, that one, that one, that one (chuckles)....now, in the end the guitar was the one I became proficient at....you see, that´s why I always play so long, that other thing always happens so fast....but I´m still, I´m still down here looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise....you do it the same down here, right? there´s nothing different?....(?) the way the Earth spins, you might´ve had to make some changes or something, I don´t know (chuckles) anyway, this is a song about glory days....all things must pass....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Glory Days´´**

´´No matter how old you get....you gotta keep looking for that Promised Land....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´**

´´Thanks....I was living in California two or three years ago for a little while and I was thinking back to the place I grew up in and....it was kind of like a real small town, it was real small-minded, narrowminded at the time when I was in my teens....and, uh, I can remember thinking that I used to get on the bus on every weekend to go up to New York City....you could breathe a little easier...I remember thinking that one day I was gonna leave that town and I was never, I was never gonna go back, I wasn´t ever gonna miss anything about it ever again....and, uh, I got a chance to go out on the road and for a long time I, I didn´t miss it very much....and now I started to wonder what was going on back there, what was happened to....to the people that I knew, I´d get home and I´d get in my car and I´d drive down there and I´d visit my old friends and see what their lives were like....see what had happened to them....and, uh, I guess no matter where you go or what you do....uh, the place you were raised in always stays in your blood and.....that´s a good thing, it´s a good thing....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´My Hometown´´**

´´(after the dancing with a girl from the audience) It´s a tough job, what can I tell you.....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, end of ´´Dancing In The Dark´´**

´´Shout if you´re feeling hungry inside (crowd cheers)....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Hungry Heart´´**

´´Now, this is a story about a man and his Cadillac....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Cadillac Ranch´´**

´´I remember when I was growing up, my old man always telling me....that I was never gonna amount to anything....I remember sitting downtown....thinking about all the things that you, that you wanted but you weren´t ever gonna have....(?)....thinking that maybe someday ....that maybe some way....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´I´m On Fire´´**

´´Bring it down now, boys....way down....well, now this is a song....about the conflict.... between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh....sexual desires.... and spiritual ecstasy....you can´t have both....now, where did this conflict begin?....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike....that´s why they call it the Garden State back home....but now understand, in the Garden of Eden there was none of the accoutrements of modern living....there wasn´t any tv, you didn´t have any little bed you could go home at night and crawl up into....you couldn´t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....they didn´t have any of those, uh, uh, what do you call ´em? they didn´t have any of those Vegemite sandwiches then ....no, Sir, no!....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin....there was no sex.... man lived in a state of innocence.....well, now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in....but just before the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries....why my soul pulls me one way and my body pulls me the other so I hitchhiked on out there....and I found out that location - not now (?) - I found out that location was occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone?’...I said ‘I’ll take two’ ...then I said ´But Dan, that´s really not the reason I came, you see, I wanna know the answer to this temptation that tears me apart all the time, why does my spirit pull me over here and flesh pull me over there, he said ´Well, Son, that´s easy because right here on these ten beautiful commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, in the Garden of Eden there were many wondrous things: there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she looked so fine....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch....and when Adam touched her, well, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman..... and then they walked out into the green fields....and they lay down....and when Adam....let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below....but that´s alright because right here tonight on this backlot for 9995 and no money down, I´ve got their getaway car and if you´ve got the nerve to ride....I´ve got the keys....to the first....pink....Cadillac....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Pink Cadillac´´**

´´I remember it was about, it was around the end of the summer....and uh....it was just starting to get a little coolness in the air and there was this strip down off the river, it was like a junkyard I guess where people....people from town would go down there and dump off the things that they didn´t want no more....and there was a little clearing where everybody would meet on the weekends and I remember I had this, this old ´69 Camaro, it was a convertible, I got it for 500 dollars....and, uh, the only problem was that the top wouldn´t go up so when it rained, it rained (chuckles) but, uh, I remember I´d take that thing down there on the weekends and that was the first place where I met her and when we first started going out, it was like it always is when you first start going out, you´re always having a good time, it don´t matter what you do, you never argue one another....I don´t know why time passes and things change but, uh, she got to where she....didn´t wanna talk much any more....she didn´t wanna go out at night....and she started hiding the keys to the car so I, so that I couldn´t, so I couldn´t take it out....and it got hard to understand ´cause I know once that she knew that when I used to take the car out and when I used to win....that it was the only time that I got to feeling good about myself....and that to have just one thing, one thing in your whole life that you do that makes you feel proud of yourself....I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask....that´s not too much.... (....) Well, that was the night that we left, I remember we packed our bags and we just got out of there....we still don´t know where we´re going yet but I guess that´ll come in time, but sometimes it seems like time gets running so short on you, like it´s gonna run out on you..... there´s not much you can do but....but keep going....and you keep on searching....and you keep going....you keep going....and keep going....and keep going....and keep going....and keep going....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Racing In The Street´´ **

´´Oh, I´d just like to take a second and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight ....I also, I know a lot of you guys waited in line for a long time for tickets and....I want you to know that we appreciate it....and uh....I´d also like to thank youse for the support you´ve shown for our band over the years when we haven´t been able to come down here....if I´d known it was this much fun, I would have come sooner (chuckles)....anyway, this....this is for you guys....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Can´t Help Falling In Love With You´´**

´´You ain´t tired yet, are you? (crowd: ´No´) I´m just getting my second wind now....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, end of ´´I´m A Rocker´´**

´´I´m sorry, I can´t stop myself (goes back into the song)....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, towards the end of ´´Ramrod´´**

´´You´re having a little thunder Down Under....´´
 * 21.03.85 Sydney, Australia, intro to ´´Detroit Medley´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//